Thursday, December 14, 2006

It's funny how much heat Jim Allchin of Microsoft has received for the e-mail to Gate's and Ballmer stating "I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft." Groklaw has more details of this e-mail here.

I'd say the guy was on-target and understood the problems facing his company. He states "I'm not sure how the company lost sight of what matters to our customers, both business and home, the most, but in my view we lost our way.” and goes on to state “I see lots of random features and some great vision, but that does not translate into great products" If only more executives would put things in perspective the way Jim Allchin did.

What actually grabbed my attention here is how many people still believe “Windows vs. Apple” matters!

I believe the sun is setting on desktop computer use for the majority of “daily use” applications. This would include Word Processing, spreadsheets, e-mail, calendaring and collaboration. Even entire development platforms are now available on-line. Build your web 2.0 app with no local software required! So why care about the OS or computer hardware used? Really, it will come down to browser quality. In theory a decent “diskless” workstation with only a browser should be enough to run daily apps. Maybe not today, but within five years I believe this will be in the realm of possibilities.

The question I still have: Is the fully featured desktop computer w/desktop apps going to be irrelevant in the Future or is this move to the internet just a fad?